a few weeks back, i asked for anyone's help to cure my lack of power to the compressor. i kept insisting that a red/white wire provided power and several of you said, "nope, should be green/brown (red). i went to school yesterday (the local junkyard) where i got to examine and dissect a long deceased '84 xj6. boy do i feel like an idiot when i saw the red/white wire plugs into the coolant fill reservoir tank. dah....guess what, now i am no longer looking at the lit up radiator light on my dash. i then spent about an hour tracing the green/brown power wire. greasy hands and all this is what i traced from the compressor past the front of the engine where it dips down then crosses over to come up again just behind the outer passenger headlight where it follows the fender to the firewall pass through on the passenger side:


this wiring is set up for the original oem compressor with the thermal fuse whereas my new compressor i installed last august did not require it (nor was it part of the wiring configuration when i remove the old oem compressor). i mainly wanted to trace its path and to see if there were any hidden inline fuses. all i can see are a couple of snap connectors.

i got back home and made the proper connection to the compressor and still have no power to the compressor and no function at the dash ac controls:{.

as i stated in prior posts, i'm not much of an electrical troubleshooter but i did buy this tester and with your help and a lot of basic questions supported by photos, i hope to improve my electrical troubleshooting skills and find the culprit:

 

Never Mind.....

 

lnrb: no need to edit i read your pre-edit post and i agree. i broke several cardinal rules when i removed/installed the compressor by not taking pictures/ labelling wires/generally recording where i started as well as not paying heed to the warnings from this group. thank god for junkyard university. at least my mis-steps may help some other poor sod down the road.

now i have to try to diagnose why i'm getting no power at the business end of the green/brown(red) wire. time to play with my new toy. this is a cheap one i got at harbor freight.

?????does anyone have a recommendation for a better tool that is easy to use? is there such a tool that can sense 12v by touching the wire/insulation anywhere along its path????????? i ask because i learned there were near breaks in the wiring as i removed it. i did not cause them.

 

Think of electricity like water as it flows downhill from negative (ground) to positive (red on the battery terminal). The electrons in the outermost orbit (valence shell) of an atom (like copper) have the weakest connection to the nucleus of that atom - like Pluto does to our Sun. So they are the easiest to influence to bounce from one atom to another when an abundant source of electrons are introduced on one end of the wire (at the negative terminal of the battery which is grounded on the chassis). These electrons are travelling to the positive RED terminal of the battery where there is a deficiency of electrons. That creates a flow of electrons (like water) along the outermost orbits of the atoms. Each of these channels of electron flows are encased and protected from one another by a cloth or rubber/plastic "insulator" to keep them encased. Any more explanation is Quantum Mechanics and waaay beyond my comprehension.

 

You can cover the basics perfectly well with that test light.

Cheers
DD